Celery Root Puree with Black Olive Paste

There are few purees of anything that I like, because purees obliterate the textural values of food. There are some notable exceptions, one of them being the mashed potatoes, and another any partly or wholly pureed bean, such as the kind that I add to soups or the dried fava bean puree with broccoletti rapa in one of my previous books.

Celery root I had never liked in any form, let alone mashed, because it is usually so bland. Yet, during an